DHCR Must Reconsider Landlord's MCI Application

Landlord applied for MCI rent hikes based on elevator improvements. The DHCR ruled against landlord, who then filed an Article 78 appeal, claiming that the agency's decision was arbitrary and unreasonable. The court ruled against landlord, who appealed and won. The DRA had ruled that some of the elevator cab improvements were performed in an unworkmanlike manner. But the DHCR failed to provide landlord with copies of photographs taken by the DHCR's inspector and the tenant response to its PAR. Among other things, the inspector's report stated that a new elevator cab had been installed recently. Since the DHCR relied on the inspector's report and tenant claims to deny landlord's PAR, it should have given landlord notice of these submissions as a matter of due process. The case was sent back to the DHCR to give landlord a chance to respond to these items in the record.

Greenwich Leasing LLC v. DHCR: NYLJ, 2/6/12, p. 26, col. 6 (App. Div. 2 Dept.; Balkin, JP, Leventhal, Belen, Roman, JJ)